Wednesday, August 15, 2012

NEWS BLOG: The Romney campaign's faux anger

The word of the moment for conservatives is outrage. We heard them use it
most of the day yesterday, and it's likely we'll hear it again today.

In a campaign stop in Virginia yesterday, Vice President Joe Biden reminded
the crowd that some government monitoring of the banking industry might help to
prevent another financial catastrophe like the one that occurred at the end of
George W. Bush's second term. The same one that brought about the Great
Recession.

Biden warned the crowd that Governor Romney's plan to remove those
regulations could "chain" Americans to another taxpayer-funded bailout.
Conservatives gasped at the remark. There were African-Americans in the crowd,
Joe Scarborough, said this morning. The MSNBC host of "Morning Joe" said, Biden
knew he was using coded language.

Then the show's producers showed Romney speaking yesterday afternoon,
sounding like he was delivering a eulogy on a Spanish soap opera. He denounced
the smear tactics of the Obama campaign, and he moaned that the president has
degraded the White House.

Biden later said he meant to use the word "unshackle" in reference to a
remark made by Romney's running mate, Paul Ryan. The comments from both men can
be seen in this NPR report, and it's unlikely either was making an insensitive
reference to race.

While the rest of the show's co-hosts feigned their disgust with Biden's
comments, Washington Post columnist Jonathan Capehart abruptly turned the
conversation on its side. Where was the outrage from conservatives over the
coded language used against this president during his entire first term in
office, Capehart asked. Where was all of the indignation to references to
Obama's birthplace, his alleged Muslim heritage, and his food stamp presidency?

Where was Romney's anger then?

Viewers did have a right to be outraged over this spectacle, Capehart said,
but for a different reason. A conversation about what really happened in the
banking industry - which nearly caused an international collapse of the
financial markets - was side-stepped, he said And he's right.

It's outrageous that most Americans saw huge losses in their 401k accounts,
while the folks culpable for the mess walked away with millions. While most
Americans saw their retirement savings evaporate and their plans to send their
children to college get postponed, the Wall Street set complained about not
getting bonuses.

It's an outrage that the crowd with a half dozen homes was disgusted by
middle-class Americans trying to leverage the meager equity out of their only
home.

And it's an outrage that years later, no one associated with the financial
collapse has been charged for any criminal wrongdoing. But the people who have
the courage to protest against the actions of these robber barons and their
Republican allies are often arrested.